Dems from coal-producing states vow to fight Obama on emissions

Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes is running for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky. (Pablo Alcala, AP)

Alison Lundergan Grimes and Natalie Tennant, two Democrats from coal-producing states running for the U.S. Senate, vow they’ll fight the Obama administration’s proposal to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of State, issued a statement saying the new Environmental Protection Agency rule to cut emissions from existing power plants by 30% “is more proof that Washington isn’t working for Kentucky.”

“Coal keeps the lights on in the Commonwealth, providing a way for thousands of Kentuckians to put food on their tables,” Grimes said. “When I’m in the U.S. Senate, I will fiercely oppose the president’s attack on Kentucky’s coal industry because protecting our jobs will be my No. 1 priority.”

Grimes is locked in a fierce battle with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has called the Obama administration’s approach a “war on coal.” The statements from Grimes and Natalie Tennant, West Virginia’s secretary of State, underscore Obama’s unpopularity in some key parts of the country as well as the tightrope certain Democrats face in the 2014 midterm elections.

In a sign of how this will become a campaign issue, McConnell’s campaign hit back at Grimes by calling her the “recruited” candidate of Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “She is being funded by liberals nationwide who know that a vote for her is a vote to ensure further implementation of their anti-coal agenda in the U.S. Senate,” McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore said.

Tennant also stressed the need to protect coal-related jobs in West Virginia, where she is running against GOP Rep. Shelley Moore Capito for the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller.

“I will stand up to President Obama, (EPA Administrator) Gina McCarthy and anyone else who tries to undermine our coal jobs. Washington bureaucrats need to understand, these are not numbers on a balance sheet, they are real people with families to feed,” Tennant said. “I refuse to accept that we have to choose between clean air and good-paying jobs when I know West Virginia can lead the way in producing technology that does both.”

Tennant is advocating for incentives from Washington that would help bring affordable advanced coal technology to the market. She recently toured the National Research Center for Coal & Energy at West Virginia University with Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who faced some of the same issues about the administration’s environmental policy in her race last year.

West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant is a Democrat. (Randy Snyder, AP)